I absolutely love this episode. It’s different! Vegans are not monochromatic, and today’s guests come from a part of the healthy-living movement that we think of as more farm-to-table and holistic health, a place where we can find a lot of smart and well-intended people, but not as many vegans and vegan-friendly experts as we might hope. Today we have the best of both worlds with my longtime friend and one of my health advisors, Lisa Everett Anderson, B.SC. Pharm, FACA, CCN, and her husband Arden Anderson, DO, Ph.D — the good doctor has a BS in agriculture, an MS in public health, and a Ph.D in agricultural biophysics.

We open with Lisa discussing the difference between “Big Pharma” and compounding pharmacies, such as O’Brien Pharmacy, her family business in the Kansas City suburb of Mission, Kansas; the difference between a Registered Dietitian and a Certified Clinical Nutritionist (she is currently president of both the American and International Associations of Clinical Nutrition); and some of the “whole picture” of “holistic health.” We then bring Dr. Anderson on with a fascinating look at soil health, organic foods, why some organic foods are terrific and others aren’t, GMOs, holistic health and healthy eating for people with limited incomes, and a look at his book, Food Plague: Could Our Daily Bread Be Our Most Life-Threatening Exposure. (Note: this book is about food safety in general; it is not a vegan book.)

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Blast from the past! This is Lisa Everett’s second appearance on our podcast. The first time, she talked about the endocrine system, hormonal balance, and her professional view of the controversial issue of bioidentical hormone replacement. Listen direct to that episode, “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Hormones, But Didn’t Know Whom to Ask,” by clicking on this link: http://www.unity.fm/episode/MainStreetVegan_082813.

Main Street Vegan is a live radio show every Wednesday, 3 pm U.S. Eastern Time, on Unity Online Radio, the Voice of an Awakening World. You can listen live at www.unity.fm and call in (816-347-5519) from anywhere on earth to ask your questions of Victoria and her guests. You can use that same url to listen to any of the live programs Unity Online Radio offers.

Or listen to our podcast — along with five years of archived programming — here. You can also subscribe on iTunes.

"The great news these days is that vegan living is for everyone. This is such an important message, and I applaud Victoria and JL for their beautiful book that will help so many people renew their commitment to a vegan lifestyle or find the courage to take the first steps." - Emily Deschanel